An arrest has been made in the July 4th shooting death investigation of Antonio RIVERA. Over the past 2 weeks since this unfortunate incident, Detective Arwen LaMotte and several other Detectives of the Michigan City Police Department have been following up on leads and reviewing surveillance video from several citizens in the neighborhood that had home security and/or Ring doorbell cameras.
During the course of this investigation, it was learned that RIVERA had gotten into an altercation in the Stop 2 parking lot during the evening hours of July 4th. This altercation led to a female being pushed to the ground and injuring her ankle. The injured female soon noticed that her cellphone and
car keys were missing. The injured female and her friends then began tracking her phone and learned that RIVERA was in possession of the property. Arrangements were made for RIVERA to return the property to the injured female near Lake Hills School, where the injured female and her friends had parked their vehicles to visit the beach.
When RIVERA arrived at Lake Hills School to return the property, he was in possession of a firearm, and subsequently fired his weapon. RIVERA fled the area and was chased by VIGIL who was the lone occupant of his vehicle, a black Hyundai Sonata. Shots were fired by VIGIL in the area of
Washington Park Boulevard and Liberty Trail where RIVERA was fatally wounded and subsequently crashed his vehicle into a business in the area of Liberty Trail and US 12.
On July 15th, 2020, Detective Arwen LaMotte, with the assistance of La Porte County Prosecutor John Lake and Deputy Prosecutor Elizabeth Boehm, obtained an arrest warrant on Zachariah Colton VIGIL for Murder. Upon obtaining the arrest warrant, it was learned through the course of the
investigation that VIGIL was currently in the area of Lake James near Angola, Indiana, approximately 2 hours east of La Porte County.
Detectives traveled to the area and within hours, VIGIL was located operating a jet ski on Lake James. VIGIL was escorted to shore and placed under arrest on the active Murder warrant with the assistance of Conservation Officers from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.